Minority populations and persons of less privileged socioeconomic status suffer a disproportionate burden of disease and associated complications from many serious health conditions in the U.S. In addition, as the U.S. population ages, older persons as a group are increasingly more ethnically diverse with social and behavioral factors predicting substantial variation in functioning and morbidity in older adults. To address these issues, the Center for Aging in Diverse Communities (CADC) was established at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1997 under the leadership of Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD. CADC is one of six national Centers funded by the Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) program by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health.

The CADC is committed to increasing high quality research focused on the concerns of aging Latinos and African Americans by:

Increasing the number of researchers devoted to improving the health of Latino, Asian, and African American elder adults and reducing health disparities

Developing and mentoring minority researchers by providing training and support for proposals, pilot studies, and dissemination of research findings

Collecting and validating existing measures for research with Latinos, Asians, and African Americans, and developing new measures

Recruiting and retaining Latinos and African Americans for clinical research

Funding and implementing new pilot studies that advance knowledge on healthy aging, disease, and disability among older African Americans, Asians, and Latinos

Disseminating information about interventions to reduce disease and disability and improve the health of older Latino, Asian, and African American adults

Margaret Fang, MD, MPH, associate professor of Medicine and CADC Scholar, was awarded $3.5 million to compare the effectiveness of blood thinners for the long-term treatment of venous thromboembolism. Collecting data from electronic health records and patient surveys, her team will compare the risks and benefits of warfarin and four newer oral anticoagulants in preventing recurrence of blood clots. Read more here.